The Year Ahead 2019

How American Poverty Became “Fake News”

There are more “globally poor” people in the US than in Sierra Leone or Nepal, and the poverty rates in the US and China are similar, despite the more than threefold difference in per capita income. Unfortunately, as in so many areas, here, too, President Donald Trump’s administration is embracing alternative facts.

PRINCETON – Under the administration of the incontinently mendacious President Donald J. Trump, everyone should worry about the integrity of America’s official statistics. They should worry about much more under Trump, particularly the fate of democracy in the United States. But without credible official data, there can be no genuine accountability – and thus no democracy.

Consider the Trump administration’s reporting on poverty in the US. It seems that the baseline numbers produced by the US Census Bureau are (so far) intact, but there has been a flurry of misinterpretations that go beyond the usual partisan spin.

Commentators on the right like to quote Ronald Reagan’s 1988 claim that in the War on Poverty, declared by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, poverty won. That claim, perennially used as a cudgel to beat the social safety net that was expanded under Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms, is consistent with official poverty estimates, the methodology of which has not been updated since the 1960s.

The one point I am going to address in response to your article is the fact of “manufactured” crisis-talking-points, as a talking point for public discussion in the US. The talking points may or may not be based on any facts. Presently one talking point is the “border wall”. Another “talking point”, among many is the “opiate crisis” in the US. The talking point I want to address is the “opiate crisis” talking point, because I think there are some significant facts that have been distorted in the last few years publicly. Maybe at some other time, I could consider writing anything about that other talking point.

Angus, you are most definitely validating, the modern-day adage-"when all else fails manipulate the data". I have been scrolling through state, federal and international websites to cite references for any comments that I make on this site. I have been shocked at what I view as a real failure to have current relevant data easily accessible on websites in the US. Personally, I have noticed that data is not current on the many of the US federal sites, such as Federal Housing, USDA, CDC, sites. There is much data that literally "stops" at 2014-2015. Or the data prior to 2016-2017 is NOT included. Those little blue boxes on the CDC referencing “contact dataset owner” kind of flash little red lights to me, and make me wonder, what they predict about access in the most recent future.

I think the lack of government data is really getting worse, as a lot of it is getting quickly “privatized”.

I've been checking for transparency reporting just in the state that I live in, Ohio. In Columbus, there had been a good attempt to establish community development plans with goals, I think from 2014-2019. However there are no updates as to what has actually been accomplished based on those plans from a few years ago to date. There are NO new plans presented publicly, and there should have been by 2017, if those efforts at transparency and community goal setting were to continue.

I will continue with addressing data about the US opiate crisis, that I think is definitely NOT a real crisis at all. I think the opiate crisis is just a “manufactured crisis”. I have reached that conclusion based on the data that I am reporting here.

There is no relevant data to suggest that self-ingestion, and even non-self-ingestion of opiates on any level is at or near any crisis as a cause of death in the United States. I believe the intent for propagandizing any opiate crisis as a medical crisis is criminal, and is deliberate, and contrary to any level of goodwill or the greater good for the citizens, and major demographic quintiles of the US population.

I think my comments are very relevant to what you have presented in your article. It is difficult for any citizen especially in the US to research basic data that should be transparent, and presented and discussed, to the general public.

The general public should have opportunities to start at a common point of factual reliability, rather than politicized data from hidden agendas, primarily for short-term profit motivation, with no interest for the greater good of any local community, nor the nation as a whole.

So, just what are the leading causes of death in the US, and just where do “opiate caused” deaths show up in the data? The most recent US Federal data is based on 2016 deaths.

There are two leading causes for death in the US. Deaths in 2016.

Two diseases combined accounted for 44.9% of deaths in the United States in 2016. Those two leading causes are Heart disease and cancer. The third leading cause is accidents, unintentional injury.

All deaths total 2,744,248 in 2016. Deaths due to Heart disease are 635,260. Deaths due to Cancer are 598,038. Deaths due to accidents, unintentional injury are 161,374.

There is a significant drop in the total number of deaths that are grouped in the first two categories for the cause of death in the US, especially as compared to the total number of accidental deaths in the US for 2016.In 2016, 161,373 persons died of accidents, unintentional injuries.

Of that number of 161,373 deaths, there are a number of sub-categories to differentiate the cause. One of the subcategories includes drug-induced deaths. Of the sub-category of drug-induced deaths, opiate related cause is just one of many types of sub-categories for types of drug-induced deaths.

The percentage of deaths in the US that are due to unintentional injury, includes automobile accidents too. The percentage of deaths in the US that are due to unintentional injury are 5.9% of all US deaths that are reported to, and compiled by the US Vital Statistics Office in Washington DC.

So, this writing is about a portion of 5.9% of the unintentional injury deaths that occurred in the US in 2016, the latest year for accountable statistical data. Do you notice how the number and focus of the death data is decreasing significantly?

These numbers do not address any kind of medical, health, or death crises in the US.

There are a lot of sub-categories for the cause of accidental death. A few of the sub-categories include deaths that could be categorized as self-ingestion of a number of types of drugs or poisons. Opiates can be one of the drug-induced death causes. However, “opiates” are not differentiated, except possibly according to the ICD10 coding. That further delineation is not presented on the NVSR data tables.

“In 2016, a total of 67,265 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Tables 5, 6, 8, and I–1). This category includes deaths from poisoning and medical conditions caused by use of legal or illegal drugs, as well as deaths from poisoning due to medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes deaths indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother's drug use. (For a list of drug-induced causes, see Technical Notes.) “

Remember that we are only talking about a total of 5.9% of all deaths in the US based on 2016 US statistics.

In 2016, the age-adjusted death rate for drug-induced causes for the total population increased significantly, by 20.9% from 17.2 in 2015 to 20.8 in 2016 (Tables 5, 10, and I–1). For males in 2016, the age-adjusted death rate for drug-induced causes was 1.9 times the rate for females. The rate for drug-induced causes increased 26.0% for males and 13.6% for females in 2016 from 2015. The age-adjusted death rate for non-Hispanic white males was 28.9% higher than for non-Hispanic black males and 131.8% higher than for Hispanic males. The rate for non-Hispanic white females was 71.6% higher than for non-Hispanic black females and 252.8% higher than for Hispanic females. Among the major race–ethnicity–sex groups, the age- adjusted death rates for drug-induced causes increased significantly in 2016 from 2015 for non-Hispanic white males (24.7%), non-Hispanic white females (12.0%), non-Hispanic black males (42.2%), non-Hispanic black females (29.8%), Hispanic males (26.5%), and Hispanic females (12.8%).

Don’t let the comparative percentages distort what we are talking about. The number of deaths that are drug-induced are relatively minor even when compared to the two leading causes of death, and especially when compared to all the other causes of death for US citizens.

In other words, I am writing that there is NO OPIATE CAUSED CRISIS due to drug addicts or any body else dying from taking drugs, especially opiates. There is an attempt to create a CRISIS, and a reactive response in some of the minds of the public in the US and possibly worldwide.

In 2016, a total of 67,265 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Tables 5, 6, 8, and I–1). This category includes deaths from poisoning and medical conditions caused by use of legal or illegal drugs, as well as deaths from poisoning due to medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes deaths indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother's drug use. (For a list of drug-induced causes, see Technical Notes.)

Remember that we are only talking about a total of 5.9% of all deaths in the US based on 2016 US statistics.

So, now we are down to the number 67,265 deaths to drug-induced causes of 5.9% of all deaths in the US in 2016. So, 41% of deaths caused by unintentional injury is drug-induced causes. Does that percentage seem scary? We are talking about less than half of 6% of the population that died in one year in the US. And, a different way to write the same information is:

2.5% of all deaths in the US in 2016 were drug-induced deaths. The number of human beings that died in 2016 from drugs is: TOTAL- 67,265 Of that number, only some were drug overdoses by any drug addicts. Any percentage, or “by specific drug type” is not reported in the DVSR.

The number of people that died in 2016 in the US is: TOTAL - 2,744,248

The death rate in the US is 8.1 per 1,000 annually. The death rate hasn’t changed much. It could be lower. Aging demographics could be affecting the death rate more than drug-induced deaths for any age group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_mortality_rate

Of that 2.5%, of all US deaths in 2016, an unknown percentage cannot be specifically accounted as self-ingested-drug-induced deaths. You have to access some other reports to get the itemization based on the ICD10 codes. There are about 10 codes of this next list that probably would be the correct category codes to examine further categories to really classify self-ingested drug-induced deaths.

• Age-adjusted death rates decreased significantly in 2016 from 2015 for 8 of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, Chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, diabetes, Influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and Septicemia. Significant increases occurred in 2016 from 2015 for 4 of the 15 leading causes of death, including unintentional injuries, Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, and Parkinson’s disease.

• More than 99% of deaths occurring in this country are believed to be registered

That’s the best I can do for now. This report sure isn’t perfect, but I’m not getting paid anything to write it. But, there’s a lot of other people working and not getting paid either. So, I guess I’ve joined some kind of company, or corporate entity.

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